


The Judging Voices Inside My Head

by akasharpiegirl



Series: Fight On, Fighter. [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Irondad, Irondad & Spiderson, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Gets A Hug, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Needs a Hug, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper is also losing her sanity, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark are Siblings, Peter Parker helps his little sister with college, Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony is losing his sanity, mostly fluff this time, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 16:12:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21256115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akasharpiegirl/pseuds/akasharpiegirl
Summary: Morgan visits a college fair and Peter helps her figure out a career she’d probably like to pursue. Tony nor Pepper want their daughter to grow up so fast. Peter tried to help Tony stop freaking out over all the college talk going on. Hilarity and angst ensue.





	The Judging Voices Inside My Head

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for wanting to read this!
> 
> Please read the last couple of parts if you have not already. You really need to understand the backstory to get where this is coming from. It’s an AU which is hard to catch up on.

Morgan took out her miscellaneous folder and pushed her backpack under the bus seat, as she felt the school bus stop in front of the community college located about an hour and a half away from her home. She knew she would get tired holding onto the folder for another hour and a half, but it was better than lugging her backpack around for that long. She took a deep breath before getting out with the rest of the junior class.

“Write your school name and then your first and last name on the stickers before going in,” a volunteer said at the entrance of the recreation center, where a long table sat with pens and blank stickers. 

“Oh, great,” Morgan mumbled, picking out a sticker and steadying it with her right hand as she wrote down her high school’s name and ‘Morgan S.’ on it. 

“Full last name, sweetheart. Not just the initial,” the same volunteer said to her.

Morgan rolled her eyes once the volunteer turned around. She finished off her last name, put the sticker on her right sleeve, following loosely behind the rest of the kids she came with. 

She could barely see any college’s booth, there were just under a thousand students filing through the gymnasium making it hard to see through the sea of people.

Nonetheless, she still moved around, examining each booth as she walked. She visited Boston University, New York University, and Penn State before stopping at the University of Georgia booth, which was right next to MIT’s booth. 

She stood at UGA’s booth, awaiting an admissions officer, since she was actually interested in it. 

And before she knew it, she had to speak with the one college everyone expected her to go to. (She never agreed with that, but there were times where she wondered if she was failing at being a good daughter due to MIT not being in reach.) While, in reality, she was the perfect mix of Pepper and Tony. Then sprinkle in some individuality of her own. That’s when you got Morgan. 

Despite Massachusetts Institute of Technology having a 7.9% acceptance rate, their booth was packed with STEM crazed high school students from her school, Midtown Technology students, and various other students from other schools reaching high for collegiate life.

Morgan took a deep breath in in an attempt to relieve the stress she felt, making it to the front. She hadn’t expected to be greeted by someone at the booth because of how packed their space was. 

“Hello, would you like a—“, the college aged looking volunteer barely got out before looking up. “Oh my! Hello, Morgan Stark. It is very nice to meet you. Would you like a communication card to fill out? We send out information packets and various forms for promising high school students interested in what MIT has to offer. Are you looking to go down any of the engineering paths similar to your father?”

It physically pained Morgan to lie, but she did anyway, “Thank you, it’s nice to meet you as well. And, yes sir, I’m considering it. Try to start and carry on the tradition if I can, you know? Why wouldn’t I?” The kid handed Morgan the card. “I-Is it okay if I come back with it filled out? It’s getting crowded.”

She picked up the brochure that hadn't changed much in design since Peter’s early action days after the kid handed her the communication card.

“I get what you’re saying. And, yeah, sure thing,” the kid said. “Hope to see you on campus soon!”

Morgan squirmed away from the booth, finding safety outside of the real life chaos exhibit. In times like this, she really considered throwing all she knew out the window and making a post about her Dyscalculia. Ignoring how much uneducated and unadulterated hate she, her Dad, and her Mom would get not even a minute after hitting the post button. How long could she keep lying? Before too long she’ll be lying to herself.

———

Morgan has her earbuds in, listening to Speechless from the live action version of Aladdin that came out in 2019. She was humming as she kept switching between drawing and reading through academic program lists from the brochures she kept after coming home from the field trip.

She hadn’t heard her family calling her for dinner.

“Morgan? You okay?”, Peter asked as he knocked on Morgan’s doorframe. 

Morgan looked up from her bed, taking out her earbuds. “Hm?”

“Whatcha doing? Mom and Dad have been trying to get you down for dinner the last five minutes. FRI said you weren’t in distress so they asked me to come get you since I was the closest to the staircase,” Peter answered her wordless question.

“Oh, I, uh, was looking at college stuff and doodling, sorry,” Morgan answered, shutting off her drawing tablet. “Uh, hey… How’d you know you wanted to study chemical engineering? Was it just obvious to you? Or did you need someone to, I don’t know, pry that want out of you for you to realize it?”

“It took some prying. Your Dad and my aunt had to help me navigate all of that. My dream job was to be some type of engineer at SI, ever since I was in middle school I knew that. I just didn’t know how to get there. I don't think I'd be where I am now if it wasn't for your Dad tracking me down in Queens at 14 for my Spider-Man stuff. Or at least, it would take much more time and effort to achieve my goal of being an engineer at Stark Industries if it hadn't been for your Dad finding me.”

“Can you help me figure it out? Dad’s been trying to help but a lot of the stuff he suggests, I don't think I'm that great at. Or at least, not good enough to pursue a career for it… Cause we all know you're going to take over SI after Momma retires.”

“We'll cross that CEO bridge when we get there, got it?”, Peter asks, as Morgan nodded. “And, sure. Just a couple before one of your parents comes up because I failed my job trying to get you down for dinner. Hand me the UGA and Penn ones.” Morgan tossed the two brochures to her brother as she kept looking at NYU and Boston.

A minute passed before Peter landed his pointer finger on the brochure from Penn State. “Was it a fever dream or was there a time you memorized everything there is to know about phonetics?”

“No, you didn’t imagine that. Though what I learned was just the International Phonetic Alphabet and maybe just a bit further. I was bored over the summer after freshman year. Can you blame me? Why?”, Morgan asked.

“Did you enjoy learning it though?”, Peter asked. “Did it come easy to you? Do you still remember anything about it?”

“I mean, I guess I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it enough to keep up with it. The science of it all, it makes sense to me,” Morgan shrugged. “It’s always in my brain, sometimes it just hits me. Like when I’m talking I’ll remember ‘oh, that is the reason the name Peter sounds the way it does’. Insert whatever name or nonspecific word I would be saying in that moment.” She put air quotes around the second to the last statement. 

“What would you think about communication sciences and disorders or linguistics?”, Peter asks. “If you went with communication sciences, you’d get the opportunity to be a speech-language pathologist. I read about this at a career thing my school did. You’d get to work with kids like you, you’re incredibly sociable when you want to be, you’re creative, and more of an introvert than you’d like to admit.”

“That actually sounds cool… It would depend on how much math and what complexity of science is covered though. If it’s focused, I probably could. Broad? Not so much,” Morgan answered, before stating with a glum tone,“NYU and Boston offer it too.”

“UGA does too, if New York or Boston aren’t your style,” Peter says. “You should really look into it, Morgan. I think you’d be good at it.”

“I will,” Morgan answered. “It really seems interesting.”

“Well, we gotta head downstairs for-“, Peter barely got out.

“I asked you to come get Morgan for dinner three minutes ago, what happened?”, Tony appeared at the doorway of Morgan’s room.

“I asked him for college advice,” Morgan answered. “It’s handled now.”

“Oh, college stuff, huh?”, Tony asked as the three walked downstairs. “Have you figured out what you want to do? Dream school?”

“Maybe, it depends on what the classes entail. And no, no dream school yet,” Morgan answered as she sat down at the table with her family on that Wednesday night. Peter, MJ, her Mom, her Dad, and her all had dinner together every Wednesday night and it was her favorite night of the week usually.

“So what are you interested in studying?”, Pepper spoke up once the family sat down and started eating.

“Like I said, it depends on the classes but communication sciences seems really intriguing,” Morgan shrugged. 

“I could see that,” both Tony and MJ said simultaneously.

“With you finding an interest in phonetics in freshman year, I honestly don't know how I didn't see it coming,” Tony continued.

“My roommate at Boston had her eye on completing a double major in communication sciences and disorders along with psychology. I have no idea if she kept on with it. I still have her information. I could ask if you want me to?”, MJ asked, to which Morgan nodded. “Complained a lot about the first year college algebra, but she got through it… Said she wanted to work in an elementary school until she finished her CF and then she had ambitions to open up her own private practice.”

“College algebra-”, Morgan tried to say.

“It's no different than algebra two. You'll be fine,” Tony quickly assured her. 

“You may be able to take college algebra as your fourth math next year,” Pepper spoke up a moment later. “Since they're finally letting kids outside of the city take dual enrollment classes starting in the fall. Took them long enough, years ago they only approved it for NYU and surrounding colleges. Before that, every other state had policies on it and New York wouldn’t give in at all.”

“Is that in tandem with my precalc? Because I'm telling you all right now I'm not taking two maths my senior year,” Morgan shut down the idea. “I'm supposed to enjoy my senior year, not drown in the same stress from junior year.”

“It replaces precalc,” Peter answered before anyone else could speak up. “Taking it now before you actually go off to college will probably make your freshman year way easier. You won't have to video call Dad for help if you need it. Plus, since the program covers both college and high school credit, it makes college admissions officers look at you longer and gives you a better chance of getting in to various schools.”

Morgan let out a sigh of relief, “You're probably right.”

“You being a stickler for your GPA I think you should… It helps both forms of your averages, unweighted or weighted if you get good grades,” Tony answered. “Which you do.”

“What schools are you even interested in?”, MJ asked.

“Uh, well… I picked up and didn't end up throwing away the UGA, Penn State, NYU, and Boston brochures today. So, maybe those? I don't know,” Morgan answered. “I have until like August to decide, I have time.”

“Georgia? Athens?”, Tony asked, noticing it was the farthest out of the four. “That's fourteen hours, kid.”

“UGA’s one of the colleges I have a chance at,” Morgan answered. “It's a good school. 96% have jobs after graduating. I'm interested, but it's not my dream school yet, Dad. You don't have to freak out. Plus, I don't know if retirement has made you lose some memory but, we have this thing. And that thing, it's called a private plane. Oh, and video calling keeps getting better year after year, Stark technology is great if you haven’t noticed.”

The comment earned laughter from Pepper, Peter, and MJ and a fake glare from Tony.

“Key word there is  _ yet _ ,” Tony answered. “And harsh, Maguna. I'm just having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact you're about to be a senior in high school. Seems like yesterday you were born and couldn't talk yet. Now, you're a junior and all you do is make fun of me, your own father.”

“It's my job since Peter can't get away with it anymore,” Morgan answered.

“I still do. But I only get away with it because I’m not actually fully related,” Peter answered. “I don't know how you're getting away with it.”

“She doesn't,” Tony was quick to say.

“Don't lie to him,” Pepper scoffed. “She gets away with it and it's hilarious.”

“You're not on my team anymore, is that so?”, Tony asked her.

“As soon as Morgan started calling you out, I haven't been. Sorry to burst your bubble there. I’ve been lying to you all this time,” Pepper answered. “She actually sees you the way I saw you when you started calling me Pepper and it would be wrong of me not to stand by her for that.”

“So you're saying you've been off my team since she was three,” Tony asked for confirmation in the midst of scoffing. 

“Her first words to you after getting sick were ‘you are annoying’ which is the child’s equivalent to what I was thinking in that moment, so, yes,” Pepper answered. 

“Were those really what my second first words were?”, Morgan started laughing. “Talking to Dad?”

“To just Dad, yes. You relearned other words before then but your first individual conversation with him after you got sick, you shut down his rambling with a soft, ‘you are annoying’. Didn't have the annunciation of the last letter on the end of your statement, but the impact of your statement wrecked him. Which cracked me up when I walked in the moment it happened.” 

“That's… That's amazing and quite inaccurate to now,” Morgan stated. “But props to toddler me for stating my mind in that moment.”

“This is what you have to look forward to if you and MJ have kids,” Tony said to Peter. 

“I see that,” Peter held back a laugh. 

“I can't wait to convince our children to turn against you,” MJ stated to Peter.

“Oh, gee,” Peter sighed. “Can't wait for that.”

———

“Dad, do you think I should say something already?”, Morgan asked out of the blue after coming downstairs. 

“About?”, Tony asked a moment later after finishing the dishes.

“My Dyscalculia,” Morgan answered, now sitting at the kitchen island.

“It's up to you kid,” he responded. “If it were up to Mom and me, people would already know about it. It's not one of those things that people would hinge on for forever. For a few weeks and months, maybe. But not years. Would be easy to shut down people claiming it's a stunt. But it's completely up to you whether you say something now or later.”

“It was just overwhelming today,” Morgan stated. “It's just really hard hearing a volunteer from  _ your _ alma mater go ‘hope to see you on campus soon’, and I know full well I won't be on that campus again. The three and the only times I've been there were move in day and graduation days for Peter. It physically pained me to lie to that volunteer. Asked me if I was going to carry on the tradition. The tradition? I can't. I don't know how much longer I can keep it to myself. I won't find enough confidence quick enough to say a thing before I start fooling myself.”

“It sounds like you're having a really bad run with inferiority complex today,” Tony answered. “That’s caused by what you think people think of you. You're doing fine, great actually. Do you remember what Mom and I said to you at the start of your freshman year?”

“Keep a 3.3, as long as I'm doing the best I can, it's not a problem. You are always proud of me. I know, I know,” Morgan sighed. 

“You've got a 3.9,” Tony answered. “That's  _ one  _ B for your entire high school career. Your two algebra classes, you got A’s. Remember how happy you were when you saw you finished both of those classes with A’s? You would've had three A’s if it wasn't for that geometry final you had to take and I’m sorry about that.”

“Yeah, because the school refused to actually set one of my field trips as an excused event,” Morgan rolled her eyes. 

“I see why you're scared to say anything about your Dyscalculia, because people at BuzzFeed and TMZ will twist reality in more ways than one. Still, people believe that type of stuff. Those pages feed off of gullible people who don't care to look for the source. But, I feel like what’s really holding you back is your own expectations of yourself. Yeah, the press scares you. But I really think this is your own fear pushing out other reasons behind it. You're scared people will look at you as a fraud and that you're not good enough to be a Stark,” Tony paused. “But that never decided a Stark, no matter what anyone says. You're my only biological kid. Biological kids aren't decided based off of that variable. If people don't understand that, they didn't pay attention in their freshman health class.”

Morgan cringed at the last comment.

“Reality is, there are so many people out there who care about you regardless of your high school class status or where you're going to college. Truth being, the name of the college doesn't matter as long as it's a great school academically and your grades are good. It's education. Some won't care the minute they hear any other school aside from MIT, but those are the narrow minded people who don't understand the idea that kids are different than their parents. If anything, you speaking up about it will help people with similar fights,” Tony said upon sitting down next to Morgan at the kitchen island. “But, I'm still abiding by the pact I made with eight year old Morgan, so, it's up to you. But you've got to remember cut off is graduation day.”

“Graduation day?”, Morgan questioned.

“Yeah, your school announces your signed college when you walk across the stage. When MIT isn't tagged with your name when you march and you haven't opened up about Dyscalculia by then, they'll definitely know. I'd think you'd want to open up about it before the staff gets a chance to say UGA, Boston, or Penn… Or wherever your heart guides you. Like I said a minute ago, it shouldn’t matter. But I guess it’s another way to celebrate senior accomplishments or something.”

“Oh,” Morgan mumbled. “I forgot about that.”

“So is there anything I or Mom can do in the meantime to push that fear away?”, Tony asked. 

“Use time travel to fix me, so I can finally be normal or something,” Morgan answered.

“I hate to break it to you kiddo, but it doesn’t exactly work like that,” Tony stated. “And hey, I don't normally call you out on this, but you've gotta stop with the whole not normal mentality. You're only making it harder on yourself when you do that.” 

“That’s not fair,” Morgan rolled her eyes. “And I know, I know. Mom’s told me that millions of times. It's just really hard when everyone you know looks normal and it's a topic that everyone can't seem to let go.”

“Not everyone,” Tony corrected.

“You get my point!”, Morgan got annoyed.

“I do get your point,” Tony confirmed. “Now, do you have any homework you need to finish up?”

“I actually do… Nothing big but can't be done during break tomorrow,” Morgan answered.

“Gotcha,” Tony nodded as the father-daughter duo both stood up. “Anyway, go on up and finish your homework. We'll talk about this conversation tomorrow with Momma. Love you kid.” 

“Love you too, Dad,” Morgan said as the two hugged.

She ran upstairs a moment later.

“She has got to stop being quick to judge herself,” Tony said under his breath about Morgan. 

He pulled out his phone and gave Peter a call.

“Hey, Mr. Stark! What's going on? Did we leave something by your place?”, Peter answered the second after the call went through.

“No, you're good Pete. I needed to ask something about Morgan,” Tony asked.

“Shoot,” Peter said absentmindedly.

“What's your guess? With your sister’s dream school? Did Maguna express liking for one in particular?”, Tony asked.

“No, she didn't. Not when I talked to her. She mentioned NYU and Boston, but that was because she was looking at those brochures while I was helping her look at the others. In case you haven't noticed, your daughter is really hard to read,” Peter answered. “Now instead of her emotions being hard to read, it's hard to even figure out what she's thinking.”

“But what about your guess?”, Tony asked.

“If she goes down the SLP path, I don’t think she’d be truly happy with attending NYU or Boston. Those two cities in which the universities are located, Boston and New York Children’s are obviously in the same area. She has to get her pediatric rotation at either of those hospitals unless by some miracle another hospital wanted her in a 70 mile radius. She’s expressed nothing but hatred for those children’s hospitals once she gets past the whole ‘they helped save her life’ thing, which is understandable. Boston in and of itself would probably be hard for Morgan to come to terms with in the first place, considering Cambridge is technically considered a suburb,” Peter thought aloud. “My bet is on Penn or Georgia.”

“I can see why she’d be hesitant for both of those schools,” Tony answered. “She spent a month in the city after getting sick and another month and a half in Boston for her intensive rehabilitative therapy… Then in and out of both for check ups and MRIs every couple of years. Can only imagine how happy she’ll be once she gets done with her last mandatory scan in a few months.”

“I’m assuming you’re just scared about her moving out?”, Peter asked.

“I don’t get scared,” Tony quickly rebutted. 

“Yeah you do, Mr. Stark. I have documented proof that you do,” Peter commented.

“If that’s really what you want to call it, yeah, I am,” Tony answered. “It’s already hard enough seeing my little girl book senior portrait sessions to take over the summer. Soon enough Pep and I will send her off to wherever she goes for college. It’s a weird thing to think about.”

“Understandable,” Peter agreed. “It’s weird seeing Morgan so grown up. Seems like yesterday I met her for the first time when she was five.”

“Stop that,” Tony quickly stated. 

“You know, Mr. Stark, becoming a parent has really changed you. For the better, obviously,” Peter answered. 

“No,” Tony denied and proceeded to correct Peter. “Attempting to parent and hopefully succeeding at parenting a headstrong and strong-willed girl who is simultaneously just like my wife and just like me is how that happened. Attempting to parent you did nothing to me aside from give me gray hair.”

“Hey,” Peter huffed. 

“It’s true,” Tony answered.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this. Please leave kudos and comments if you did. 
> 
> Until next time, have a good rest of your morning/afternoon/night/day!


End file.
